Citizen Science and Democracy

• In Event: Local and Community Governance of Environmental Policy

Abstract

Environmental governance at any scale, including at individual decision-making process, is inherently political process. Over half a century of the power struggle between local communities and the state on environmental governance issues around the world, the concept of data, knowledge, and science has gone through critical interpretation as more open framework of governance structures through democratization emerged in a majority of the countries. With democratization of national politics, globalization of Eurocentric model of nation-state and education system persists around the world. In Eurocentric view of education and political orders, science is perceived to belong to official academic practices, and recognized as the ultimate authority in decision-making processes of governmental institutions. This view of science considers local citizens’ knowledge and tacit knowledge of individuals as inferior in decision-making processes. This chapter examines the case of citizen-organized International Water Tribunal in the Rhine River basin. The paper analyzes how and why citizen science conducted by local communities and citizens plays critical role in animating associational life of democracy and democratic decision-making processes in global environmental governance.

Author

• Tun Myint, Carleton College